Fatherhood in motion. Stories and experiences of a first time dad, twice, all while trying to get to the finish line.

Controlling a GoPro via REST APIs

“I recently ran across this post explaining how to hack your GoPro camera over wifi and thought it would be awesome to control my GoPro with my Amazon Echo. I imagined being able to set up a home security system that I could control with the power of my own voice.

Sadly, GoPro’s “API”, which is really more of a hacked http request, only works when directly connected to the camera via wifi. Technically you could connect the Echo to the GoPro’s wifi network, but I think without access to the internet, Alexa can’t read the custom “skills”. For more information on building you own Alexa “skill” using the SDK, check out my blog post.

Still, playing with the GoPro over wifi and the command line is fun, and can have some interesting uses. You could probably even control it with the Apple Watch or any other device with Wifi.

Here’s how to go about using it.

Connect to the GoPro’s wifi

Turn wifi on on the GoPro, typically on the device itself. Then connect to the wifi network, which is probably password protected. You’ll need the same password you use in the app.

You’ll lose internet connection now, but have access to the camera and it’s functionality.

The GoPro is always configured with a static ip address of 10.5.5.9. This makes is very easy to script the controls.